Do You See Anything? (Mark 8:23)

"He laid hands on the man’s eyes a second time and he saw clearly."
(Mark 8:25)

This is the only passage in the Bible where Jesus attempts the miracle a second time. It is called a ‘stage – two healing process’. After Jesus laid hands for the first time, he asked the blind man, if he could see. In all of the miracles that were performed by Jesus, never once did he ask, “did it work?” then why here? Let us visualize the story again.

Jesus comes to Bethsaida, some people bring him a blind man. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village (Mark 8:22-23) Now Bethsaida, was a fishing village supposedly the hometown of Philip, Andrew and Peter. Today it stands in ruins but you can see it overlooking the Sea of Galilee. In Biblical times, it was a thriving city situated on the coastal region. King David, the Assyrian king, Alexander the Great, the Hasmonean, the Phoenician they all invaded and ruled this village. Alexander Jannaeus converted the local Phoenician population and brought in Jewish settlers, so it had people from all over. Most of these settlers were pagans and unbelievers resulting in a lot of wickedness. They worshipped almost everything under the sun.

The blind man was already living in darkness, physically and spiritually. I say spiritually because some people bring him to Jesus, he does not come on his own accord he lacked faith. ‘Jesus takes him outside the village’ because the evil in the village was a distraction, not to Jesus, but for the blind man. Jesus has to restore the man’s faith so he takes him outside the village, away from the evil. This is the first part of the miracle 'restoration of faith'.

Every miracle that Jesus performed was related to a person’s faith. Here after the first laying of hands, the man begins to see a bit, now he had faith that Jesus could cure him! Based on that little faith, Jesus goes ahead and completes the miracle with the healing of his physical blindness. Jesus sends him home saying, “Do not go into the village” (Mark 8:26). The man is sent away, away from the evil, the unbelieving, all the sin that choked his living, he has to now live in the light not in darkness.

Jesus did not reject the man for his weak faith, nor did he make him feel that his sins were an obstacle for his healing. Jesus will never give up on us. No matter how little our faith maybe or the gravity of our sins, if we come to God, he will never turn us down. There are times when He takes away our burdens in an instant, and at other times, it may be longer. We are blessed to have a ‘Sacrament of Healing’ it is under the disguise of ‘Confession’. Have you ever approached this wonderful sacrament thinking you are confessing the same sins over and over again? Don’t let that discourage you! Remember that as you keep bringing your sins to light, you are exposing yourself to God’s healing grace. Jesus never gave up on us, he went to the cross for us, so don’t give up on him either.

“Lord open my eyes that I may see the wonders of your mercies. I am yet blind to so many things. Help me Lord never to be discouraged when restoration takes a little longer than usual. Lord, increase my faith.”